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Just when you thought the feud between the Real Housewives of Orange County housewives, Tamra Barney& Gretchen Rossi, had calmed down, comes news that their feud has once again gotten very nasty and personal. And the man in the middle of their current feud is none other than Gretchen’s current boyfriend, Slade.

According to InTouchWeekly, Tamra believes that Slade Smiley bashed her parenting skills on a recent episode. “I take raising my children very personal. Maybe it’s something he should try doing,” Tamra, 42, tells In Touch. Ouch, Tamra is referring to the news report that Slade owes $80,000 in back child support to his sick son.

Tamra doesn’t stop there, she continues, “I think he is a washed-up 40-year-old who wants to be on TV so bad he’ll do whatever it takes.”

Gretchen, 31, is however quick to come to the defense of her man. “She should focus on her own children, who obviously need the attention,” says Gretchen alluding to the troubled son of Tamra, Ryan Vieth, who has had several run ins with the law. Ryan has received a staggering number of more than 20 traffic violations over the past seven years.

“One of them went to jail recently and has not been successful at much except hitting on drunk girls that Mommy connives to get naked wasted at her home,” says Gretchen.

Yikes, this new feud is rather suprising considering Tamra has been writing in her blogs recently that she and Gretchen are now on good terms. Not certain of what Slade said about Tamra’s parenting skills in any of the recent episodes.

We recently wrote about the downside of appearing on a reality show such as the Real Housewives of Orange County. The first downside being that your ‘perfect’ marriage that you pride yourself on will come off as being not so perfect in front of millions of viewers, while your husband’s cutesy behavior might come off as being somewhat controlling.

The second downside it seems is skeletons from your closet being unveiled. New housewife on the block, Alexis Bellino, is now experiencing this as her first husband, Jeff Barry, is spilling all sorts of sordid details about the couple’s first marriage and nasty divorce to Star magazine. And oh yeah, there are pictures too.

In the latest issue of Star magazine, it is revealed that Alexis and Jeff got married back in 2002 after 3 years of dating. The Missouri college sweethearts would later go on to divorce in 2003 after just 15 months of marriage. Reasons for their divorce includes infidelity, boozy brawls, computer hacking, physical threats and missing money. “We had been college sweethearts in Missouri,” Jeff, 31, a sales engineer, tells Star. “I never dreamt back then that things between us could turn so ugly.”

More details about Alexis’s first marriage below –

The couple moved to San Diego shortly after their 2002 wedding. “We were young and didn’t have a lot of money.” says Jeff. “Then Alexis…started hanging out with trust fund babies. Having the right pair of expensive jeans became important to her.”

Eventually, Jeff discovered his wife was having an affair with a wealthy father of three she met at the gym.

“I gave Alexis endless opportunities to fess up, but she kept denying everything,” says Jeff. “Then she said she needed her space, moved into her own place and asked me to go to therapy with her. But she only went twice, she made no effort at all.”

Jeff pretended to be a friend of Alexis’s and started emailing her under false pretenses. His suspicions were confirmed that Alexis was indeed sleeping with the married wealthy man.

Jeff then sent a mass email out to couple’s friends and family, in which he referred to Alexis as a “gold-digging homewrecker,” and a “$2 whore.“

In the divorce filing, Jeff said of Alexis, “She can be an extremely mean, irrational drunk… She once took off her top in front of my best man to make me mad because she was upset that I smoked a cigarette.”

The couple’s divorce was finalized in June 2004. According to Jeff, he hasn’t had any contact with Alexis in four years.

“I’m not surprised she ended up on a show like Real Housewives,” says Jeff, who is now remarried. “She just seems to have even bigger boobs, a nose job and blonder hair now.”

According to Star magazine, Alexis declined to comment on this article.

Kandi Burruss also revealed that Bravo is currently negotiating with all five ladies for season three. Nene Leakes revealed earlier this year that the ladies were each paid $100,000 to film the second season. That amount should go up as the Atlanta housewives have brought in the highest ratings ever to the housewives franchise.

They averaged 2.8 million viewers per episode. You can compare that to the 1.8 million viewers the Real Housewives of Orange County received for their last episode.

Lisa Wu Hartwell, Kandi Burruss & Kim Zolciak

In other news, Kandi Burruss celebrated the opening of her Atlanta store boutique, TAGS, last night. In attendance were her fellow housewives, Lisa Wu Hartwell and Kim Zolciak. Noticeably not in attendance were Nene and Sheree. Photographer, FreddyO reports Nene was out of town, and Sheree’s daughter had a play that night.

It is also reported that Big Poppa aka Lee Najjar was also in attendance, but did not allow any photographs of himself taken. Kim is back to sporting her “engagement ring” so it’s safe to say these two are back at it.

MORE PHOTOS BELOW –

The autopsy result is in, and it confirms Ashley A.J. Jewel, former fiance of Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kandi Burruss, died from a rare trait of sickle cell anemia that became fatal because of a fight he had back in October.

AJ’s death is still however being ruled as a homicide based on a report from the Fulton County medical examiner given to AJC. “Although Mr. Jewell died of complications of his underlying natural disease conditions, [the] complications would not have occurred if he had not experienced the extreme exertion that was part of the physical altercation,” the report said. “Due to the active involvement of another person, the manner of death is classified as a homicide.”

Initially, it was believed Jewell, 35, died of blunt force trauma to the head. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office later said AJ most likely died from sickle cell, a condition he did not know he had.

Frederick Richardson has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of AJ. He is currently free on bond.

I’ve said it previously, and I’ll say it again – Lynne’s plastic surgeon deserves some sort of hall of fame award. That above is some good work.

Dr. Milind K. Ambe is the miracle worker plastic surgeon that performed Lynne’s “face lift” on July 11 in Newport Beach, Calif. “He moved my face up by lifting my forehead,” explains Lynne. “I also had a lift around my neck.”

“I’d always worked out a lot, but my head didn’t match my body,” Lynne tells Star. “I was so excited to get the work done.”

And how did Lynne afford her surgery considering her very recent and public eviction? She claims she paid for the procedure using sales from her Lynne Curtin Designs jewelry collection. “It looks like the clock has been turned back 12 years on my face,” she says.

Jo appeared on the 1st and 2nd seasons of the show as the fiance of Slade Smiley. In this new interview, Jo talks about her feelings towards Slade and Gretchen’s new dating relationship (Gretchen was friends with both Jo and Slade), the new man in her life (pictured above) and why she chose not to return to the show this season.

Excerpts from Jo’s interview below –

Q. Reality Wanted: Will you make an appearance in Season 5 of The Real Housewives of Orange County?

A. Jo: It is one of those things where, I left the show back in Season 2, and my life is so different now, who I am now compared to who I was 4 years ago. I live in LA now. There were talks of me coming on the show to confront Gretchen and Slade, but I need to be selfless at this point. Regardless of how I feel about them being together, this is Gretchen and Slade’s time in the spotlight and I just want to move forward with my music. It would have put me back out there in the public eye, but for all the wrong reasons. I will forever be thankful for The Real Housewives of Orange County, because that is how I got my start, but I have my own story that I have to tell through my music, and for me to go back to confront the past just doesn’t make sense.

Q. Reality Wanted: How long did you & Slade date? Even on Date My Ex, he was always with you…

A. Jo: We were together for five years. Here is the funny thing, some insider information: even though I was on the show; I was still in love with Slade. I was still trying to work things out. It was never really over for Slade and I. Even after Date My Ex, Slade and I were still trying to work it out and then….came Gretchen.

Q. Reality Wanted: On the show, Gretchen said that she called you to let you know about her and Slade, even though he had said not to. Is this accurate?

A. Jo: She called me because I found out from her ex-boyfriend Jay that Slade and Gretchen were hooking up. So the whole reason she called me was because it was already out. She actually called me when Slade was in jail and she was asking for help. (Smiley was arrested in February 2009 for unpaid child support, purportedly at Rossi’s Costa Mesa home.) I was just like, “How can you call me and ask me for help when I just found out that you are sleeping with Slade?” The truth of the matter is that it is what it is, and Gretchen, to me, is…it’s just dumb. We were ALL friends, you know, no matter how close we were, I just wish they would have come to me first, without me having to find out the way that I did. Even being able to talk to Slade on it, one on one, but they didn’t even give me that. I just have to move forward, and not have a confrontation on camera. He was the love of my life, and she knew that. I was with him for 5 years, we were engaged, I acted as the mother of his children, and I was building a life with this man, and she was the girl that I knew, and you know what it is, at the end of the day, I just hate the way it all came down and came to an end. Slade and I are no longer even friends, and I haven’t even been able to talk to him face to face about it, and I know that is because of her (Gretchen).

My favorite franchise would have to be the Real Housewives of New York City. No, it does not have any table flipping, wig yanking drama, but it does have a cast filled with interesting characters. Where else can you find the crazy eyes of Ramona, Bethenny’s great one liners, the Countess’s delusion of grandeur, Kelly’s air headness, mixed with the desperate social climbing ambition of Alex and Simon.

The NYC franchise comprises of what the Housewives series was originally about — focusing on great characters rather than grande drama. I actually find myself looking forward to February, when the 3rd season will be back on the air.

TELL US – SO THE QUESTION OF THE DAY IS, WHICH HOUSEWIVES SERIES IS YOUR FAVORITE? AND WHY?